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Aviation History
1957
1957 - 0032.PDF
32 FLIGHT, 11 January 1957 FROM ALL QUARTERS Woomera Developments " A NEW project" by A. V. Roe and Co., Ltd., at the Woomera**• range, to begin early this year, was mentioned last week by Mr. Howard Beale, Australian Minister of Supply and DefenceProduction. The firm has taken over the laboratories at Salis- bury, South Australia, recently vacated by Vickers-Armstrongs,Ltd. Mr. Beale gave no further details, but went on to say that, inanother new project, de Havilland (who have had a small team at Salisbury for some years) would be associated with representativesof Saunders-Roe, Ltd. (It will be recalled that a non-committal announcement of de Havilland Holdings, Ltd., having acquired aninterest in Saunders-Roe, Ltd., was made early last November.) The Minister added that British aviation and electronic firmsnow working at Salisbury totalled seven. In a second statement, on Sunday, Mr. Beale disclosed that twospecial research rockets are to be launched from Woomera this year. One, the Skylark, developed by the R.A.E., is designed tocarry equipment to a height of 100 miles or more. The Minister added that the "rockoon" method of launching rockets fromballoons, already practised in the United States, would be used in Australia for the first time. The second rocket was one developedAustralia, and it would be launched as part of the joint inU.K.-Australia guided weapons project. A 360 m.p.h. Beverley IN a New Year message to employees of Blackburn and GeneralAircraft, Ltd., Mr. Eric Turner, the company's chairman, says: "Apart from the present version of the Beverley, which will beproduced throughout 1957, you will be interested to know that we have just put forward proposals for modifying the Beverley toa turboprop version which would make it a long-range 360 m.p.h. machine without sacrificing its ability to operate from small,secondary airfields." Mr. Turner adds, "Then there is the new aircraft, still unfor-tunately hidden under the cloak of security. Many more of you will be working on this during the coming year, and the quickerwe get on with it the better it will be for us all. I believe that the aircraft will eventually go into widespread service at home andabroad, and when I tell you that in this class of aircraft we are ahead of anybody in the world, you will realize that the possibilitiesare tremendous if we pull together and make every post a winning post." [It may well be that the aircraft referred to by Mr. Turneris the new pure-jet carrier-borne strike aircraft ordered for the Royal Navy as a successor to the Wyvern.] Mr. Turner declares further that the prospects of the companyare better than at any time in its long history, "and for that matter," he adds, "better than those of many other companies inthe industry." As we go to press a news item from Brough states that twoBlackburn-Turbomeca Turmo 450 h.p. free-turbine engines are being consigned for delivery to Kaman Helicopters, of Bloomfield,Conn. They will be installed in experimental prototypes. The Mont|Blanc Rescue Attempts TpIGHT men were rescued by two Alouette helicopters from•*-' a hut near the summit of Mont Blanc on January 3, following unsuccessful attempts to save two young climbers who had beentrapped on the mountain for twelve days. The eight comprised the two-man crew of a Sikorsky S-55 helicopter, and two guides,who had crashed in the machine while attempting to rescue the two climbers on December 31, and four guides who had beenlowered from another helicopter after the first had crashed. The rescued men were flown to Chamonix, the two pilotssuffering from shock and frostbite. Rescue operations for the two climbers, who were officially believed to have died of exposure onthe night of December 31, were stopped on January 3, after the crashed S-55, in which the two men had been left for shelter, hadbeen examined from the air by the French Secretary of State for Air. Hermann Geiger, the well-known Alpine pilot, had alsoflown over the helicopter in his Piper Cub, and had suggested further rescue flights. It was decided not to make the attempt. Lady Handley Page WE record with regret the death, on January 2, of Lady HandleyPage, wife of Sir Frederick Handley Page. As Miss Una Helen Thynne, she was married in 1918, the year in which Mr. Handley Page (who was knighted 24 years later) was made a C.B.E. There are three daughters of the marriage. R.Ae.S. Presidential Address THE number of new members of the Royal Aeronautical Societyenrolled during 1956 was more than double that of any previous year. This news was contained in the Society's presidential addressby Mr. E. T. Jones, C.B., O.B.E., F.R.Ae.S., which was due to be delivered at Church House, Westminster, last night (January 10).A reception was to follow the address; we hope to give a full report of both functions in next week's issue. Mr. Jones' address, which was devoted to a general review of"three related subjects—the aeronautical engineer, the world's oldest aeronautical society, and the world's newest form of trans-port," had this to say about guided weapons: — "These new vehicles of the air, essential as they may be consideredfrom the military point of view, are competing for a part of the limited aeronautical effort and facilities available and, while in the main theyare expendable, they may prove useful stepping stones to other forms of air vehicle, and in any event they will certainly help in the furtherdevelopment of high-speed manned flight. In other words, just as the existence of the aircraft urged the development of nuclear weapons,so will these unmanned air vehicles provide data to accelerate further development of the aircraft." Armstrong Siddeley Reorganization NOW responsible for the technical development of all productsof Armstrong Siddeley Motors, Ltd., is Mr. W. H. ("Pat") Lindsey, M.A., F.R.Ae.S., who has been appointed technicaldirector of the company. Since 1950 Mr. Lindsey has been chiefengineer of the Aero-engine Divi- sion; his new responsibilitiesinclude diesel engines and cars. Mr. Lindsey joined A.S.M.from Cambridge in 1933. After graduate apprenticeship heworked as an assistant in the Research Department until 1940,when he was appointed research engineer in charge of his depart-ment. He was appointed deputy chief engineer in 1945, chiefengineer in 1950, and a director of the company in 1952. Following this latest appoint-ment, the technical administra- tion of the aero-engine divisionhas been reorganized. Mr. A. Thomas, deputy chief engineerand chief designer, is now respon- sible for all design activity; Mr. J. Marlow, deputy chief engineer,will control all development activities (including flight develop- ment); and technical activities (including those of the performancesection) will be under the chief technician, Mr. B. Slatter. Vulcan Report Anomalies THE statement in Parliament on the Vulcan accident at London *- Airport on October 1 went only a little way towards explaining the real causes of the accident. In a leading article last week we commented on this fact, but took the figures published in the report at their face value. A Hertfordshire reader, Mr. J. M.. EXPERT OPINION: Col. Bernt Balchen (centre foreground), the world- famous polar pilot, appraises the 9'/$ft by 5Vitt nose ski for the Lockheed C-130A Hercules. The main skis measure J9'/$fr by 5!4't. All runners are coated with Teflon to prevent freezing of the ski to the snow. Polar tests of the Ski-130 are scheduled for next month. Mr. W. H. Lindsey.
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